Cllr Laura Willoughby Responds to the Government Budget

12.00.00am GMT Tue 13th Mar 2001

Gordon Brown certainly tinkered with the tax system but failed to make any significant impact on the key concerns of Islington residents over police shortages, teacher shortages and nursing shortages. I am concerned that this Budget will not make nearly enough impact on local waiting lists, class sizes and getting more police on the streets, neither will it give pensioners dignity and security in retirement. Many patients and staff in the NHS will be disappointed with this Budget. The elderly will still have to sell their homes to pay for their personal care. The NHS will still have too few doctors, nurses and therapists. MS sufferers still will not have the Beta Interferon drugs that they need. I am also concerned that the Budget introduced yet more complicated changes to the tax system resulting in every family needing and accountant to make sense of it. Take-up of these new tax credits may be extremely low. As you would have seen the Lib Dem Alternative Budget, we will invest significantly in more police, teachers, nurses and raise the pension substantially. And we will tell people how much they will pay in tax and what their money is being spent on.